{"id":885,"date":"2018-07-01T08:41:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T08:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/2018\/07\/01\/chuck-vinci-heart-damage-in-a-presteroid-olympic-weightlifter\/"},"modified":"2019-10-10T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T15:41:16","slug":"chuck-vinci-heart-damage-in-a-presteroid-olympic-weightlifter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=885","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Vinci: Heart Damage in a Pre-Steroid Olympic Weightlifter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"chuckChuck Vinci won gold medals at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic games and the 1955 and 1959 Pan American Games, and set 12 world records in the bantamweight class of weightlifting.\u00a0 He was arguably one of the world’s greatest weightlifters before steroids and growth hormones were massively abused, primarily by behind-the-iron-curtain athletes.<\/div>\n
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On June 13, 2018, Vinci died at age 85 from congestive heart failure, a condition that has always been common in athletes who compete in sports requiring great strength.\u00a0 Their risk is probably increased because of the unproven, and likely false, belief that athletes become stronger when they eat huge amounts of food, including lots of meat and other sources of protein.\u00a0 \u00a0Also, since the 1960s, the incidence of heart disease in strength athletes is increasing at a great rate because steroids have been widely used in sports requiring great strength.\u00a0 The athletes use them because they are known to make athletes stronger (NEJM<\/em>, July 4, 1996;335(1):1-7) but can cause heart damage.<\/div>\n
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Early Years and Lifting Career<\/strong><\/div>\n
Vinci’s father was a janitor and Vinci spent much of his youth shining shoes in Cleveland, Ohio.\u00a0 He quit school when he was in the eighth grade and spent all of his free time lifting weights in Cleveland’s Central Y.M.C.A. He overcame his feelings of insecurity driven by childhood poverty by training all day, longer and harder than everyone else. At age 22, he moved to York, PA to train at York Barbell Club and earned money by helping to package protein supplements. At that time, weightlifters didn’t make much money.<\/div>\n
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When he was training for the 1964 Olympics, he tore ligaments in his back and had to abandon competitive weightlifting, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to lift very heavy weights almost to the very end of his life. At age 55, he was still able to do combined lifts of up to 400 pounds.\u00a0 \u00a0In 2002, at age 69, the arteries leading to his heart were blocked by plaques so he had to have extensive heart bypass surgery. After his surgery and while still in his hospital room, he did push-ups and squats. At age 79, he had to have a heart valve replaced\u00a0 and told reporters that doctors said he could resume weight training as soon as he healed.\u00a0 At age 85, he died from congestive heart failure, a heart that was too weak to pump blood through his body.<\/div>\n
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